Facebook, Controversy, Small Business Week and more…
Zuckerberg goes to Congress. If you ignore the rest of this newsletter, it’s okay… as long as you watch this video.
Facebook, Controversy and Small Business Week
Facebook.
Last month, I touched on Facebook’s latest data scandal. Next, I said the platform is unavoidable. Then, I provided a link to Neil Patel talking about controversy driving engagement on Facebook. Finally, I said I would publish an opinion piece about using controversy for engagement.
This (past) month, Zuckerberg went to Congress! What happened? The internet made memes. Anything else? Not really. As I stated last month, Facebook has never been known as a company that values end-user privacy. Zuck was asked a bunch of questions by people he donated money to – then told them he would do better.
Here’s the real takeaway: The internet is forever. If you want privacy, don’t use Facebook. If you run Facebook ads, the song remains the same. Facebook invades privacy so you can run targeted ads with incredible accuracy.
Controversy.
Okay. Facebook’s new algorithm for Pages rewards engaging posts. Neil Patel says controversy creates engagement. He’s correct but not all controversy is good controversy. Here’s the gist of my opinion piece:
Small Business Week.
This week is Small Business Week. I’m bringing this up because I want you all to be successful and I want you to stay in business. You stay in business by staying away from social and political issues.
#SmallBusinessWeek is also trending on Twitter so it’s a good way to engage with people who are tweeting about small businesses.
Unless…
Your business is a political organization.
Your business is making politically-motivated art.
You are Kanye. Kanye is invincible. (You are not Kanye.)
AdWeek and Sprout Social have been telling marketers to “Take a Stand” on social issues, which also happen to be political issues. AdWeek and Sprout Social are wrong. Here’s why.
Good Controversy.
I conclude by saying there is good controversy. Debate over new tools within your industry, conversations about sales tactics, discussions regarding new technology, and disagreeing with industry leaders are good controversial topics. Give them a try and let me know how it goes.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the weather!
Dustin Templeton
Founder, Consonant Marketing
Servers Reboot on May 9th at 4:00am GMT
A two-hour window is allocated, however, the actual downtime should be much less.
Why? For hardware security. Please see this page for additional details.
Our hosting partner is pretty awesome. The servers are fast and their support is great. We don’t like downtime but this one is unavoidable. They need to update and reboot the servers and that certainly beats dealing with a security breach later down the line. This is why all of the data centers advertise 99.9% uptime, right?
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#BrandsGetReal: Why It’s Critical to Avoid Taking a Stand on Social Issues
By Dustin Templeton
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Dustin Templeton is a digital marketing veteran and SMB consultant who works with business owners and entrepreneurs to maximize productivity and grow sales from the internet. Read his full bio here.
